40 People Who Worked For The Super Rich Reveal The Craziest Things They Have Seen While On Duty

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with being rich, wealth is something many people aspire to have, but having money does not give people the right to do whatever they want. Well, it shouldn’t. But the unfortunate truth is that money is power. In many of the examples on this list of rich people acting entitled and treating their employees poorly, their money is exactly what allows them to do that. The people sharing these stories relied on their wealthy employers to buy groceries, pay rent and provide for their families. That’s a lot of power to have, and sadly, not everyone with power knows how to maintain their ego.

Rich people have a lot of influence in society as well, particularly in politics. A 2015 report from the New York Times found that less than 400 families were responsible for almost half of all the money raised in the 2016 presidential campaign. And what's the impact of this? As Paul Krugman of the New York Times states, “Wealthy donors have access to politicians in a way ordinary Americans don’t and play a disproportionate role in shaping policymakers’ worldview.”

It’s no coincidence that wealth inequality continues to rise in the United States, as rich people are behind the curtain pulling the strings of politicians. Wealthy people tend to be much more concerned about tax cuts and clinging onto their money than supporting policies that would benefit the lower classes. But the problem with a small amount of rich families influencing the politics of a nation is that they don’t accurately represent the needs of the entire population. The New York Times published a piece breaking down the demographics of the 158 families that contributed the most (over $250,000 each) to the 2016 presidential campaigns, and not surprisingly, “The families investing the most in presidential politics overwhelmingly lean right, contributing tens of millions of dollars to support Republican candidates who have pledged to pare regulations; cut taxes on income, capital gains and inheritances; and shrink entitlement programs.”

Most of these families also live in the same 9 cities across the country, including neighborhoods like Bel Air and Brentwood in Los Angeles and River Oaks, a wealthy suburb of Houston. The industries they work in are also overwhelmingly similar, with half working in either finance or energy and natural resources. 

We reached out to Michelle Schroeder Gardner, creator of the personal finance and lifestyle blog Making Sense of Cents, to hear about some of her experiences working with affluent clients in the past. "The best part of working for wealthy clients was opening my eyes to an area of life that I didn't really know existed," Michelle told us. "Seeing that people actually had millions of dollars, massive homes, reached early retirement, and more, was something that I could never imagine growing up. This gave me something to work towards, even though I know that I will most likely never reach the amount of wealth that my past extremely wealthy clients have. Just seeing a different part of life was very interesting to me." It wasn't all positives, however. "The worst part was realizing that I would never get to experience even a tiny bit of the wealth that even some of my youngest clients were inheriting. I was struggling to pay my bills and I was living paycheck to paycheck, so it was a stark contrast to who I was working for."

We also asked Michelle if she ever witnessed any extreme displays of wealth while on the job. "Most of my clients seemed quite good with money, but they did have a lot of help in order to get there. They were not afraid to pay for experts and assistants so that they could make sure that there life was running smoothly and efficiently."

Lastly, we asked if she thinks wealthy people live quite differently than the average person. "Yes and no," Michelle told us. "I think that many of them think that they are normal. But, with an extreme amount of wealth, your life is just automatically different from everyone else. It's just not comparable to a normal life."

If you're interested in personal finance tips from an expert, be sure to check out Michelle's blog right here.

When it comes to who is acquiring wealth nowadays, it is largely out of the control of individuals. In fact, almost two thirds of Americans say that people become rich from having more advantages in life, and 71% of Americans believe that poor people have faced “more obstacles in life”. According to a report by Wealth X, many rich people did inherit their wealth, or at least got a huge head start from their families. The report found that people with over $100 million in net worth are expected to be responsible for over 60% of wealth transfers in Europe and Asia until 2030. And it's not much better in North America, where people at the same level of wealth are anticipated to be responsible for 38% of “passed-on wealth on the continent by 2030". Even if someone appears "self-made", they might have had generations of affluent family members preceding them.

Despite knowing about wealth inequality, it can be hard to have an objective view on what is realistic for our future bank accounts. According to CNBC, over half of millennials in 2018 thought that they would become millionaires at some point in their lives, including 70% of millennial men. But the reality is that it might be much harder to achieve that goal than many millennials realize, as much of the generation is plagued by student debt and will be responsible for their own retirement funds. “They face an economic future with projections of lower rates of return and economic growth than in the past,” says a report from the Brookings Institution. “These factors make accumulating sufficient funds for retirement more difficult for millennials relative to previous generations.”  

However, millennials are not completely doomed. Financial experts recommend younger generations start saving as soon as they can, with whatever amount is possible for them. Savings accrue interest, so starting to set aside $1000 a month when you're 25 can leave you with over $1 million by the time you retire. “People feel like, ‘Oh, I can’t start, I don’t have any money,’” Denise Nostrom, a New York-based financial advisor, told CNBC. “But even if you can do $25, $50 per week or per month — when you see it accumulate, it motivates you to want to do it more.”

One interesting thing about wealth is that it's not entirely objective. Sure, there’s a clear difference between living paycheck to paycheck and having enough disposable income to take a trip to Greece ever summer. But according to most Americans, you only need to make over $100,000 annually to be considered “rich”. Of course, a person's wealth depends on the size of their household as well. Buying groceries and clothing for a family of five living in a two-story home is very different from providing for one person residing in a studio apartment. So to be considered “upper-class”, a household of one needs an annual income of over $78,000, while a family of five needs to make at least $175,000 a year.  

It’s also possible that you are even richer than you think, in comparison to the entire world. According to a 2015 report by Oxfam, the 62 richest people in the world had a combined level of wealth that was greater than the combined net worth of the world’s poorest 3.6 billion people. While there’s no question that the richest individuals are extremely wealthy, the poorest people in the world are also experiencing severe poverty. To fall into the category of the wealthiest half of the world in 2015, one only needed to have about $3,210 worth of assets, which equates to about $3,915 today. For example, if you own a car, especially one made in the last 10 years, that’s probably enough to land you in the wealthiest half of the world.